


Highway To Hell

by FormidableChronicler



Series: Iron Friendship [4]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, BAMF Natasha Romanov, BAMF Tony Stark, F/M, Hurt Natasha Romanov, Hurt Tony Stark, IronWidow - Freeform, Male-Female Friendship, Mountains, Natasha Romanov Is Not A Robot, Natasha Romanov Needs a Hug, Pepperony (background), Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Pre-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Protective Natasha Romanov, Snow, So Bruce but No Bruce, Stranded, Thor:Ragnarok Compliant, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Whump, red hulk - Freeform, sorry Bruce
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-02 14:51:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 18,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17266202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FormidableChronicler/pseuds/FormidableChronicler
Summary: “Huh. Brucie-Bear isred, why is he red, I always thought green was more his color. And he’s somehow given himself an upgrade withoutme, the snow is melting around him like a snow cone in July. How the hell did he—-““Tony!” Natasha surged forward, ignoring the burning in her chest and the cramp in her side as she charged through the heavily packed snow. She had to get there in time, she had to make it before it was too late...”That’s not Bruce!”“Well, shit.”Or, Tony and Natasha investigate sightings of the Hulk. But the person they find is not Bruce Banner.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I just couldn't resist going back to writing Tony and Nat! They're my babies, and it was so fun to re-visit them. 
> 
> This takes place between Civil War (well, Spider-man: Homecoming as Pepperony is alive and well AS THEY SHOULD BE in my world) and Infinity War. (If you've read any of my fics, this picks up after "You're Not From Legal). 
> 
> Natasha and Tony have made amends after the Civil War, but Nat has been on the run in Wakanda for a bit. Until the day she gets a call from Tony, letting her know there has been sighting of The Other Guy...
> 
> Thanks for reading! Updates will hopefully be on Sundays :)

"What are we doing here, this is ridiculous. It’s _cold_ , Romanoff. It’s February, and it’s cold, and why do we even have a February? We should skip straight over January and February and go straight to March and Spring Break. The first two months of the year are black holes of freezing suck and we should abolish them. I’m sending Pep a message. If anyone can get it done, Pepper can. FRIDAY, make a note. February needs to be—-“

Natasha pressed a gloved hand to her eyes and counted to ten. “Stark, if you don’t shut up, I’m going to knock you unconscious and leave you in the freezing snow to be eaten by wolves.”

Tony's lips twisted in a pout. “Christ, you’re mean. And to think I thought I missed you while you were in Wakanda with King Kitten. I’m cold, and you’re being mean. Why are you so mean?”

“Because I love you,” Natasha smirked.

“That makes absolutely no sense and you can’t love me, Pepper already claimed that job.”

“And thank God for it. Pepper is a saint,” Natasha muttered, walking through the snow. It seeped into her bones despite her many layers of snow gear, but she didn’t say a word. No point encouraging Tony’s whining.

“Is that—-are you insulting me?! See?? Mean!”

“Stop acting like a five year old and I’ll stop being mean,” she stated. He muttered under his breath, but refrained from further comment. Natasha's lips curved in a small smile and she lifted an eyebrow at him. “And you did miss me while I was gone. Admit it.”

Tony huffed out a breath and took a few steps, going slowly due to the high amount of snow and the many layers of his own cold weather gear. “Not sure why,” he grumbled. “You’re here ten seconds and tell me to can it. Rude, Romanoff.”

“We are on surveillance, Tony. We can’t scope the area out if your chattering warns people that we’re here.” But she took pity on him, and bumped her shoulder with his. “I missed you too, Stark.”

“Yeah?” He brightened. “The kid also misses you, by the way. Baby Spider doesn’t think anyone else is as cool as Spider Momma.”

“Do not call me Spider Momma _ever_ again,” Natasha warned. But her face warmed a bit at the thought of Parker wanting her to still be his trainer.

“Duly noted,” Tony said quickly. He took a few more steps and burrowed his nose into his scarf. “Fuck. Let’s go back. He’s not here and I’m fucking cold.”

“We’ve barely searched an hour.”

Tony stopped, glanced back at her. With his scarf pulled over his mouth and his winter hat pulled down low, all she could see were dark, bright eyes. “Do you really think he’s here?”

She knew Stark well enough to know that the light tone was meant to be casual, but the words were anything but. Tony was just as anxious about what they would find here as she was.

Natasha sighed. “No. He’s not here.”

“We can take the jet back to the house and search in another area tomorrow. If he’s around here, we’ll find him.”

She nodded. Time had proven that if Bruce Banner didn’t want to be found, he wouldn’t be. Not even by the Black Widow. She’d respected that, Natasha thought, pulling Tony along through their long trek back in the deep snow. Once she got the hint that Bruce didn’t want to be discovered, she’d left it alone.

For three years.

But reports of the Hulk being sighted and wreaking havoc on small towns nestled in the Rocky Mountains? That she couldn’t ignore. Whatever Bruce was up to, he would have to accept that with all that destruction, the Avengers would come calling.

Well, some of them, she corrected with a glance at Tony. With the Accord situation being what it was, they weren’t exactly at a full roster right now. Even she should be in Wakanda. But when Tony had gotten word about a possible Hulk sighting, he’d reached out. And she came home.

Or at least, to a version of home. The Avenger Compound was currently off limits to her, but the mountain lodge Tony and Pepper had bought had plenty of space, and a room done up just for her, just like she’d had at the Tower and the Compound.

Stark shrugged her off when she expressed thanks for it, but she’d seen the way his eyes crinkled at the edges when he smiled. Somehow, despite everything, they were still okay.

And if anyone could get Bruce to come back, it was the two of them.

“Oh, thank God,” Tony groaned when they trudged through more snow and came upon the Quinjet. He scampered inside with a speed Natasha laughed at, and immediately went to the thermos on the counter. “Coffee. Coffee, coffee, coffee, coffeeeeeeeeeee.”

“Save some for me,” Natasha said, going to the pilot seat and strapping in. Within moments she had them in the air and heading to the lodge, and whirled the chair around to glare at Tony, leaving the jet to be commanded by FRIDAY.

Tony scowled. “Don’t give me that look, I saved you some!”

“More than a small sip?”

He grimaced and flushed. “I mean, I didn’t leave the whole thermos, we _are_ only about five minutes from the lodge in the jet—-“

Natasha stalked over and yanked the thermos free. Then shook it. “There’s barely even a drop left!”

“There’s more than—ow!” He yelped when she lightly cuffed his ear. “See? MEAN!”

“Oh, be quiet,” she laughed, then cut her chuckle off abruptly when an alarm sounded.

“FRIDAY, what’s up?” Tony demanded.

“There’s been another attack, Boss. Major destruction at a town called Little Dove. It’s about a hundred miles from here.”

Tony exchanged a glance with Natasha. She kept her gaze steady despite the nerves dancing along her skin.

“Take us there,” Tony ordered, and the jet veered sharply to the left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title of this doesn't really have much to do with this story (as of yet, some things still need to be plotted out) but I felt it was totally appropriate for Tony and Natasha shenanigans :)


	2. Chapter 2

They were too late. The Hulk was already gone.

Natasha exited the jet, keeping her face blank while she surveyed the town. It was small, Nat could see straight down Main Street from where they landed the jet on the outskirts of the town. A large school stood to their left, the only building not demolished or smoking.

Nearly every other building visible suffered extreme damage. The Hulk had smashed too well.

Tony was already ordering FRIDAY to get the Stark Relief Foundation and Department of Damage Control there immediately. How fast they would arrive to help the people already wandering around, dazed and heart-broken, was anyone’s guess.

Natasha slipped away from Tony and moved to the crowd, arms full of blankets and snacks that the jet always held. She handed them out to the people closest to her, until a child stared up at her with wide eyes.

Natasha winked at her, and pressed a finger to her lips. The little girl nodded back, and then followed a group into the school.

Nat shook her head. Trust a bright child to be the one to recognize her with blonde hair and layers of clothes covering her. It made her mouth twitch—-children always saw so much more than what most adults gave them credit for. But she moved away, not wanting to cause trouble for Stark. If it were discovered that she’d snuck back stateside and he knew about it, the Accords would have his head on a platter.

A flickering of awareness had her sharply glancing to her left. She hadn’t heard anything out of the ordinary, but the hair on the back of her neck rose, and her whole body went on alert. Eyes scanning the horizon, she furiously searched for the enormous figure of the Hulk returning to finish off the town. It had been so long since Bruce had been so destructive, he’d worked so hard to find a way to work with the Avengers and not lose control.

But a lot could have changed in three years.

Tony kept issuing orders to FRIDAY, oblivious to the threat she felt. Natasha walked into the jet and grabbed a tranquilizer gun.

Tony broke off in the middle of a sentence to FRIDAY and blinked at her. “Romanoff. What’ve you got?”

“Something’s nearby.”

His eyebrows shot up. “How do you—-you know what? I’m not gonna be the one to doubt your scary ass ability to know when trouble’s about to hit. FRIDAY, scan the area.”

“Agent Romanoff is right, Boss. A Hulk-sized being is currently ten miles away, approaching rapidly.”

“Think he’s still angry and coming back for the town?” Tony asked Natasha, peeling off his heavy coat and snow pants.

Natasha ignored the ache that tugged at her heart at the thought of all of Bruce’s hard-work vanishing and told Tony the truth. “It’s pretty likely.”

“Shit. Fry, Initiate Rage Monster Protocol. Get Veronica down here, stat.”

“On it, Boss.”

“We can’t let him get close to the town again, Tony. They won’t be able to handle another hit.”

“We won’t.” Already the Iron Man suit was assembling around his under armor, summoned from its resting space in the jet. The faceplate clicked on and blue eyes flared to life. “Ready to fly?”

Being carried by the armor in the freezing temperature would be excruciating. But Natasha only nodded. “Ready when you are.”

“Grab on, La Femme Nikita. Let’s go get our guy,” the mechanized voice said.

Grabbing onto his shoulder, Natasha gripped tight as the armor blasted into the air. She gritted her teeth against the cold and listened to Tony give FRIDAY instructions over the comms.

“I need the Hulkbuster armor ASAP, and have Veronica charge straight down at Bruce from there, he’s in a grumpy mood today. Once he’s engulfed by Veronica, Tasha and I can tranq him and get him back to the lodge.”

“Sure thing, Boss.”

“Nat, hang on, we’re closing i—fuck!” Tony yelled, rolling when a tree was hurled their direction. Natasha felt her stomach swoop to her toes and fought to keep from losing her breakfast.

“Goddammit, Banner, stop being an asshole, who throws trees at their friends? You wanna take Nat out with a tree? Where the hell are you at, come on, Bruce...”

“Boss, look out!” FRIDAY shouted, and Tony banked right. But this time, he wasn’t fast enough. The small cabin the Hulk threw at him collided into Tony’s back, smashing into the armor and causing a horrendous screeching sound.

Natasha’s gloved fingers slipped off his shoulder.

_"Romanoff!”_ Tony bellowed as she plummeted. The world flew by in dizzying bluriness, reminding her of Steve and all the times he’d leapt out of a plane without a parachute. Somehow she didn’t think her odds of surviving like he always did were very good.

At least it would be fast.

An instant later something crashed into her shoulder, quickly engulfing her. Natasha blinked at the squishy bubbles spreading over her—-she was being covered with advanced bubble wrap. When she hit the ground, hard, the worst she felt was her teeth smashing into each other.

It was better than a broken body.

Groaning, she pushed to her feet. Somehow she’d also missed falling into the trees and landed in a small clearing. The bubble wrap dropped away, dissolving into the ground. Huh. “Thanks for the catch, Stark,” she said, surveying the area. She’d dropped her tranq gun somewhere. Where did it go, how far away was it? That tranq was Science Bros designed and tested by Hulk himself, one of the only things capable of quickly taking him down if a lullaby didn’t work.

“Tony?” She said again when there was no response.

“Owwwwww,” his voice complained seconds later. “Did Banner just throw a _house_ at me? What the hell? Romanoff, where are you, did the Bubble Wrap protocol engage okay?”

“Yeah, it worked great. Thanks.”

“Good. It’s fairly new, would hate for its first time out to be a failure.”

“It worked great,” she said again, softer this time. She knew she wasn’t the only one seeing Rhodey’s fall flash across her mind. No doubt that was when Stark created his bubble wrap. “How far away are you? I was thrown pretty far when—-“

Natasha stopped breathing.

The Hulk stared at her from between the trees.

Except...it wasn’t the Hulk she knew. The familiar green face was not the one glaring at her. This Hulk was red, and bigger somehow, and held none of the humanity she would see flicker in Bruce’s Hulk eyes.

Static crackled in her ear, and Tony’s voice rang out. “—-the hell, Romanoff, are you okay? What—-“

Natasha reached up and quickly snapped the comm off, trembling, praying it was enough, that the silence would pacify the Red Hulk.

It wasn’t.

With a roar that made her head spin, he charged, and Natasha—-knowing full well from experience she could never outrun him—-could do nothing but pathetically watch as her death sped toward her with thunderous rage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Except it's Natasha so she's not going to be just standing around long ;)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm 10000% convinced Tony has a potty mouth and curses up a storm when upset. As such, there's quite a few bad words this chapter ;)
> 
> But just a heads up for anyone who might be too fond of cursing!

Damn her limited options. Retreat was out, the Hulk would catch her in moments. The tranq gun was nowhere in sight, so downing the Hulk before he reached her wasn’t a possibility. And it wasn’t like she had a chance fighting him hand to hand or reasoning with him.

Leap of faith, then.

She waited until he was close enough to see the white of his eyes—there was _no_ humanity, only piercing, dead eyes similar to a shark’s. She braced, muscles quaking, and then, when he was a hairsbreadth away from snatching her up with deadly arms, she leapt.

Managing to leap all the way over him would have been nice, but she hadn’t expected it, and wasn't disappointed when it didn't happen. She jumped high enough to get one foot on his shoulder, and managed to dart up his shoulders and wrap her legs around his neck.

Any other opponent would have been on the ground groaning after she’d flipped them over after that, but with the Red Hulk she was lucky enough to avoid his fist crashing into her jaw. Twisting to the side, she evaded his attack once again, smirking slightly when the Hulk hit himself in the head.

_Yeah, just keeping doing that and knock yourself out for me,_ Natasha thought, scrambling out of the way when a massive hand reached back for her. As long as she stayed out of reach, she would live until Veronica or Tony got there. If it had been Bruce he would have caught on to her game, but this Hulk had none of Banner’s keen intelligence sparking him. Only driven, animalistic instincts.

Piece of cake.

Roaring, the Hulk smashed both hands backward at Natasha, but she’d been graceful and nimble all her life. She flipped up and over, landing on the Hulk’s middle, then whipped around to his back before he could readjust. The result was that the Hulk smashed a fist into his own stomach, and the aggravating snarl he let out made her skin crawl.

In a rage he threw himself back, toward the trees, and Natasha stood on his shoulders and leapt up with all the power she could, arms reaching up for a branch. Fingertips just barley touching the edge of one, she grabbed on and held on for dear life, trying to swing her legs up and get them out of the Hulk’s grasp.

But her luck had finally run out.

Her left leg didn’t get onto the branch fast enough. The Hulk latched on, and Natasha felt a snap, the world going white. Then she was hauled from the tree and tossed through the air.

Colliding painfully with the ground, Natasha wheezed, lamenting that there was no bubble wrap to soften her landing this time. But reveling in pain would only get her dead that much faster, so she shoved to her feet, ignoring her screaming ankle, and breathed heavily while the Red Hulk turned to glare at her.

“I don’t suppose you would have any interest in the Avenger Initiative?” she tried. The Red Hulk bellowed, arms going out to his sides like he wanted her to see exactly all the strength he was going to crush her with.

“Didn’t think so,” Natasha said, scooting back a little when he dropped his arms. Oh, shit. She was really screwed now. The monkey act worked well before he’d messed up her ankle, but odds were good she couldn’t pull it off a second time.

The Red Hulk titled his head, a smirk crossing his face, as if he knew it too.

Then he charged.

Natasha braced for it, ordering herself to jump anyway, as he closed in. Only fifteen feet away. She was not going to die in this winter wonderland alone, injured leg be damned. Ten feet left. She’d live to just to spite the beast raging toward her if she had to.

Five feet. Natasha huffed out a breath, ready for it, body tense in anticipation...

Veronica slammed down around the Red Hulk.

The cage Bruce and Tony built snapped around him, and while his fists slammed into the walls, the cage held. Natasha doubled over in relief until she caught her breath, then limped toward the trees, to where she’d originally crashed. With Veronica here, the Hulkbuster armor had to be nearby, had to be almost to Tony. The tranq gun wasn’t necessarily needed now, but the feel of it in her hands would steady her.

There. Under a damn shrub. Of course it had fallen out of her hands and slid out of sight. Ignoring the involuntary cry that ripped out of her while she knelt down, Natasha reached out and picked up the gun.

When the roars and growls of the Hulk went silent behind her, Natasha flinched, then slowly turned around.

Veronica was still in tact. Nat slumped a little at the sight of that—-the silence had terrifyingly convinced her the Hulk escaped. But it was there, and it was working, and it was...shimmering?

She’d hit her head a few times since the battle started, but that didn’t seem right. Blinking, Nat inched a little closer, frowning at Veronica, trying to make the sight in front of her make sense. Why was the cage shimmering, there was no reason for it to...oh.

Oh, God.

It was _melting_ , the cage was liquifying in front of her, and why the hell was it doing _that?_ There was no way the Veronica would defect like that, the Hulk had to be doing something, but how?

The middle of the cage shimmered again and a red arm broke through. Natasha backed up, slinking back to the cover of the shrubs while the Red Hulk burst free. 

He stood, panting, staring her direction. She didn’t move, recalled every ounce of her training, and willed herself to blend in with the scenery. She could hit him with the tranquilizer, but it took a few moments to kick in and she needed to make sure he wouldn’t see her before she could aim and hurry up a tree. 

When he moved, he didn’t stampede her direction. Instead, he whirled and headed south, bursting ahead as if he could hear something she didn’t, and was determined to catch it. 

Shit. 

Natasha yanked the gun up, and flipped her communicator back on. 

“Stark!” 

“What the HELL, Romanoff? Why the FUCK did you turn your comms off, you nearly gave me a heart attack, there is no turning off the comms when a Hulk is loose, you’re lucky I don’t blast your ass to Tuesday, scary assassin lady or not-“ 

“Tony!” she interrupted, charging through the snow. “The Hulk is headed your way!” 

“Well, good, I’ve got the Hulkbuster all ready to go and would have taken him in sooner if _someone_ hadn’t turned off their comms and location! Luckily FRIDAY is good at her job, or---” 

“You don’t understand.” She would _not_ let her ankle stop her. She would _not_. The pain was nothing, she’d had worse. “He’s after you and will be there soon. He isn’t—“ 

“Yeah, I see him, he’s down below. And...” He trailed off, and Natasha’s heart seized. The Hulkbuster could take on Bruce, but could it survive the Red Hulk’s heating abilities? Her heart beat in uneven glitches until Tony’s voice rang through again. 

“Huh. Brucie-Bear is _red_ , why is he red, I always thought green was more his color. And he’s somehow given himself an upgrade without _me_ , the snow is melting around him like a snow cone in July. How the hell did he—-“ 

“Tony!” Natasha surged forward, ignoring the burning in her chest and the cramp in her side as she charged through the heavily packed snow. Her ankle was screaming, she was probably damaging it all to hell but she didn’t stop. She had to get there in time, she had to make it before it was too late... _”That’s not Bruce!!”_

"Well, shit.” 

The throbbing in her ankle had bile rushing up the back of her throat, but she pushed it down, forced herself to keep running. “Stark, he did something to Veronica. Melted her somehow.” 

“What do you mean, he melted—-dammit!” 

“Stark?” Natasha shoved ahead, straining for sounds of the Iron Man suit or Tony’s voice. All she could hear was the roar of the Hulk. 

Tony’s voice clicked back in, sounding strained. “It’s okay! Just—-oof!—- caught me in the side, that’s all. Hey, you got that tranquilizer, Romanoff? I could use a knock out for this guy anytime now. Fucker is mad and not cooperat—Shit!” 

“Tony? You okay?” She could see the flashes of the repulsors now. A little further. Just a little more. 

“Yeah,” he grunted. “Ow. Guy packs a punch. Hey, is it warming up out here? It’s getting hot.” 

“Get out of the suit!” Natasha demanded. “He will melt it, get out of the—“

“And go where, Romanoff? I’m not exactly Thor, it’s not like I can take him on my own without it—FUCK!” 

“Tony!” She crested a hill, glanced down to see the Hulkbuster holding the Red Hulk down. But even from there she could see the steam rising from the Red Hulk and the way the Hulkbuster suit was turning orange. 

“Take the shot, Nat, I can hold him long enough for it to kick in.” 

“Tony, your armor—“ 

“It’s fine, I worked on the heating capabilities after Killian tried to melt Rhodey. It should be able to handle quit a lot. It’s really fucking hot, but I’ll be fine. Take the shot.” 

“It’s not standing up to the heat, Stark, I can see—-“ 

“ _Take the shot!!_ ” 

Raising the gun, she aimed, and swore. “You’re blocking me, move to the left.” 

“Christ. Where’s Barton when you need him,” Tony muttered, but the strain in his voice leaked through the sarcasm. The heat had to be excruciating. The armor shifted to the left, and Natasha had just enough of a clearing. 

The tranq landed in the Hulk’s neck as Tony let out a hiss of pain. The armor burned bright while Stark tried to keep the Red Hulk down. 

“Go to sleep,” Tony muttered. “Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to—-“ 

FRIDAY’s voice shouted over him. “Boss! You have to exit the suit, now!” 

“If I get out of the suit before he passes out, Nat and I are dead.” His voice shook as he said it, but it was firm. “I’m fine. It’s only a little toasty. Just a little longer.” 

“Dammit, Tony, get out of there!” Natasha shouted. 

“In a minute!” 

A minute would be too long. “FRIDAY, override! Authorization: Protective Potts, password Natalie Rushman. Get him out of there!” 

“FRIDAY, don’t you dare—Goddammit!” Tony shouted when the suit ejected him. The Hulkbuster fell to pieces seconds after he dropped to the snow, the heat from the Hulk finally too much for it. 

That didn’t pacify Tony in the least. 

“I was _fine_ , Romanoff, and now...shit, shit, shit, Natasha, RUN!” 

The Red Hulk shoved to its feet, eyes zeroing in on Natasha. She gulped, tried for a casual expression. 

“Sorry I shot you. Please don’t smash me.” 

“Hey!” Tony shouted, waving his arms. “Big Guy! Over here!” 

“No!” Natasha snapped. “Over here!” 

Confused, the Red Hulk flicked its gaze from one to the other. But Tony threw a stick at him, and the Hulk whirled, growling. 

"Oh, boy." Tony breathed. The Red Hulk reached out and snatched up Tony, making Natasha shout. The Hulk ignored her. 

“Hngh,” Stark gasped when the Hulk squeezed. “Ow, shit. Ow, Jesus, that was like, three ribs. Fu-“ 

The Hulk tossed him. Flying over Nat’s head, Tony collided into a tree with an awful thunk. 

He didn’t get up. 

_He's alright,_ she thought, backing up a little. The Hulk would sleep soon, and she would check on Tony, and it would be fine. He would be fine, they would be fine, it was all fine... 

The Hulk took a step her way. Hefting the tranq gun up, prepared to use it the best she could, she waited. 

He had to sleep soon. He had to. 

The Red Hulk leapt, Natasha swung the gun like a bat. And felt the force of thousands of pounds of rage plummet onto her, big red hands fusing around her neck and squeezing. 

Then she knew nothing. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So as you may have noticed, The Hulk and Bruce Banner are mentioned a lot in this story, but it's Ragnarok compliant, so Bruce never shows up. (Sorry, Bruce! But you're about to become a Revenger with Thor, so I don't feel too bad about it!!!)
> 
> Veronica is the device used in Age of Ultron to (briefly) cage The Hulk in Johannesburg. My guess is that Tony fixed it up and improved it. (Although it had to fail again, or where would the fun in the story be??)
> 
> The Red Hulk is known for having the same strength and endurance as The Hulk, only the angrier he gets, he doesn't get stronger, he emits heat. Which I thought would be a real problem for Tony. 
> 
> Sorry, Tony. I'm always so mean to you, even though you're my favorite. <3
> 
> Also, Pepper totally conspired with FRIDAY and found a way to give Natasha an override code for the suit in case Tony got in a jam he couldn't get out of. Protective Potts watches out for her superhero.


	4. Chapter 4

“Romanoff.”

Her eyelids fluttered. Every inch of her ached, battered and useless, while she tried to pry open her eyes.

“Jesus, Tasha. Just hang on. FRIDAY knew our last location, she’ll be sending a suit any minute now, and we’ll get you out of here. We just gotta stay put a little longer. Can you hear me? Natasha?”

“I hear you,” she managed, groaning. Her throat felt like she’d swallowed glass. “What—is he down? The Red Hulk?”

Tony’s eyes hardened. “Yeah, he’s out. The tranq finally kicked in as he was choking the life out of you. He hasn’t switched back yet. Whoever he is, he’s somehow managed to twist the gamma radiation Bruce used and make it even more batshit than before. We’ll be having serious words about how when FRIDAY gets here with backup.”

“Okay,” she mumbled and closed her eyes.

“Nat! Come on, Sleeping Beauty. Stay with me. How bad are your injuries?”

Her ankle was still fucked. That one hurt the most. Her neck was a close second, no doubt the result of the Red Hulk choking her. Thank God he hadn’t broken her neck. Perhaps Tony gained consciousness enough time help or the tranq kicked in at the perfect time. The rest of her ached and throbbed, but nothing else seemed to be broken or fractured.

“I’ll live,” she said, and forced herself into a sitting position. Tony steadied her, gently placing his hands on her back and shoulders, ensuring she wouldn’t topple over.

“Good, that’s good, just hold on a little longer,” Tony said, and shuddered.

Natasha blinked, and tried to crane her aching head back to look at him. “Tony?”

“I’m fine,” he said automatically.

Oh right, _that_ response was never cause for concern. She twisted a little, taking in his face. She wasn’t the only one who’d been knocked around, a large gash split across his nose and a bruise on his eye already shined darkly. But that couldn’t be the reason why he was shaking, she could feel his tremors as he patted her back, though he fought to control them.

Did he hurt his ribs worse than she thought? One could have punctured something, they needed to get him to a hospital to check, immediately. She couldn’t think of any other reason, unless...

Of course. He was only in the under armor. He had to be freezing.

Natasha blinked. She was more out of it than she’d thought, if it had taken her this long to notice he wasn’t in any kind of gear protecting him from the cold.

“Tony,” she shifted, trying to get an arm free. “Take my coat.”

“Nope,” he said. “Not gonna happen. I’m fine, Romanoff.”

“At least take my gloves.”

“FRIDAY will be here soon. I’ll be—-“ his head whipped to the left. Natasha turned, trying to see what he’d noticed. The fact that she hadn’t noticed first made her already spinning head whirl. She needed to get back up to speed, now.

“Fuck. Romanoff, can you get up? We need to move. Vehicles are approaching.”

“Not anyone on our side?” She asked, struggling to her feet.

“Without FRIDAY, it’s hard to know. It could be our guys, it could be a group coming to collect the Red Hulk. We gotta hide until we know.”

Leaning heavily on anyone would normally put Natasha’s back up, but it wasn’t the first time Tony had helped carry her before. So she let him help her limp to the trees, where they hunkered down and Nat pulled a gun and two knives free. Sweat beaded on her forehead from the pain in her ankle, but she focused on the approaching SUVs instead.

None of them looked familiar.

“Suppose it would be too easy for that to be a group we know,” she said softly.

Tony snorted, shoving his hands in his armpits. “Since when do things go that easily for us?”

“Tony. Take my coat.”

“Nuh uh. The under armor protects me more than you’d think. It’s fine.”

“Then take my gloves.” She pulled them off and handed them to him before he could argue, keeping an eye on the group getting out of the SUVs. “They’ll just get in my way.”

“Romanoff.”

“Not negotiable.” She’d keep her coat, he’d keep the gloves. If the worst happened, and she got frostbite, she could deal. But Tony...

She watched the engineer begrudgingly yank the gloves on, thinking of all the times she’d seen Tony working in the lab, and all the ways he expressed himself with his hands.

Yes, she’d keep her coat. But he got the gloves.

“They aren’t our team,” Tony said quietly.

Nat didn’t respond. Keeping the group in sight, she motioned to Tony to step back. Getting caught would not go well for them, not with both of them as injured as they were and no sign of FRIDAY. Maybe if they just stayed still, and waited, the group circling the Red Hulk would leave without noticing them.

Except...This group didn’t seem nervous around the Hulk. Not a good sign. Did they have some way to contain him?

Perhaps they weren’t bad guys, perhaps the man behind this Hulk was as kind and gentle as Bruce normally. But the way the hair on the back of her neck stood up, she doubted it. Whatever organization it was, they were bad news.

And then a man stepped out of the last SUV. Natasha made a noise like an irritated cat, and shoved Tony the opposite direction.

“We need to go. Now.” she hissed as softly as she could.

Tony at least had the sense to argue quietly back. “But, FRIDAY—-“

“She can find us later. Go, Tony. If Sitwell catches us, we’re dead. Or worse.”

“Sitwell?”

“Shhh!” She hurried him through the snow, cursing all of it surrounding them. It would be impossible to hide their footprints.

“Who is—-“

“Hydra,” Nat said through clenched teeth. “Thought he was dead. The little bastard _should_ be dead. Apparently not. We need to move. He’ll be holding a grudge.”

“I’ve got my repulsor watch, we could try to take them out,” Tony said.

Maybe if she were at her best, but the way her ankle screamed and body ached...”No, keep it was a last resort. The best option is retreating. Quickly.”

They had only gone a mile when a faint shout barked through trees.

“Shit,” Tony swore, and all but yanked Natasha in his arms. “Come on, Sleeping Beauty.”

She hobbled along beside him, as fast as she could. They had to find somewhere to hide. If Hydra was messing with gamma radiation, and Sitwell somehow was miraculously alive, who knew what other horrible surprises they’d have waiting for them.

“We have to cover our tracks.” She gritted out, breathing through the pain.

“Yeah, let me get right on that with my magical snow sweeper,” he snorted, quickly turning again and leading them deeper into the trees.

“Water, Stark. Look for water.”

“Yeah, I saw a lake before we got knocked out of the sky earlier. Shouldn’t be too far, I’ve been trying to head that way.”

Another turn, and Natasha stumbled. Tony picked her up, and they dashed in a strange, almost three-legged race. When a lake did come into sight, Natasha huffed out a relieved breath. “Okay, try to get across without stumbling too much.”

“Are you implying I’m not graceful on the ice? I fell _one_ time at Rockefeller Center, stop holding that over my head,” he grumbled, while they started a shuffle-slide across the ice. Halfway across, he slipped, nearly taking them both down, but he let go of Natasha in time.

“Dammit,” he swore, trying to get back up. “I’m fine. Go on, I’ll catch up. And I don’t wanna hear a damn word.”

Despite the situation, laughter bubbled up, but she didn’t let it escape her. Nat turned, carrying on, getting closer and closer to the other side. If they could get there before Sitwell’s group, they had a chance of continuing on without Hydra knowing what direction they took. Pressing on, and glancing back occasionally to make sure Tony was still behind her, Natasha made it to the other side.

Struggling to catch her breath—-damn the Red Hulk, this would be so much easier if her ankle didn’t hurt so bad she wanted to vomit—she went to make sure Tony made it across the ice.

And turned in time to see him vanish.

“Tony!” She was back on the ice in an instant, heart in her throat. A small, Tony-sized hole was in the ice, but the water was still and there was no sign of the billionaire. “Tony!”

Making it to the hole in the ice, Natasha dropped to her knees, and plunged her hands in the freezing water. _Please, oh please, oh please_...she pleaded, hoping to find him hovering just below the ice. But she felt nothing, and yanked her hands back up, scanning the ice for any sign of the engineer. 

A familiar, high-pitched whine pierced her ears, then a block of ice exploded to her right, pieces of it shattering into the sky. Natasha somehow pushed to her feet and ran over, plunging her hands back into the water.

This time, a hand grabbed back.

With a tremendous heave Nat pulled Tony out of the ice.

“F—-fu——fuck,” he stammered, shivering so hard his body shook with massive tremors. “C—-c—-cold.”

“Don’t speak,” she pulled him to his feet. “Save your energy. I’m so sorry, Tony, we have to run. We have to go before Hydra gets here and find somewhere to get you warm.”

Nodding, he did his best to run with her, and though it was one of the harder things she’d done, she managed to get them both off the ice.

“Wa—-w—-wait,” Tony stammered, trying to turn back to the lake. “B—bi—bite?”

“What?” She asked, then blinked when his hand gestured to her hips. “You want a Widow’s Bite?”

She’d had the ones he’d designed for her in her pockets, but hadn’t bothered using them because she knew from experience they did nothing against a Hulk. But when Tony nodded, she pulled them free, holding them out.

“Th—-th—-throw.” He said.

Frowning, she did as he asked and tossed the discs at the lake. Tony lifted his right hand—still covered with the watch gauntlet, and sent three repulsor blasts at the discs on the ice.  
The ice shattered, spreading and cracking along the entire surface, making it impossible to now cross. Natasha grinned at Tony, who shuddered and smiled briefly back.

“Ca—can’t follow,” he said.

“Good thinking.” At least now if Sitwell followed their tracks to the lake, it would take a while to tell which direction they had gone. And they wouldn’t be able to take the route across the ice like Tony and Nat had.

“Come on, we have to find somewhere to warm you up,” Natasha said. He nodded and they set off, making it a good two miles before Tony simply collapsed.

“No, no, no, no, no. Get up, Tony. You have to get up,” she pulled, trying to get him on his feet. But his eyes drifted shut, and his body went lax. “Tony! I can’t carry you, Stark, get up! Please, get up...”

Tony didn’t move.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm probably taking quite a few liberties with how the repulsor watch and Widow's Bite can blow up a lake, but hey, I thought it would be fun idea! Haha.
> 
> Also, I know Jasper Sitwell gets tossed from a car by Bucky in The Winter Solider, but he seemed like one of those obnoxious bad guys who refuses to die so I brought him back.
> 
> But HOW did he survive the Winter Solider throwing his ass out of a moving vehicle into oncoming traffic? And _does_ he hold a grudge toward Black Widow? Stay tuned! :D


	5. Chapter 5

Contacting FRIDAY was out. Tony’s watch only held repulsors, and the Red Hulk had destroyed her comms while strangling her. Roaming her fingers over Tony’s neck, Natasha searched for a pulse. Where was it, where was it, where---there! It was slower than it should be, but it was there. He was alive. His lips were purple, his heart rate was sluggish, but he was alive.

He was goddamn well going to stay that way. 

Natasha grabbed Tony by the arm, hauled it over her shoulders, and dragged him through the trees.

Not the easiest way to move someone, but Stark was light compared to most (thank _God_ it wasn’t Rogers). She could bench press his weight and then some. If it weren’t for her damn ankle, and the injuries the Red Hulk smashed into her, they might not have been too bad off.

As it was, every inch was a frenzied fight to move Tony from where he had collapsed.

When blood tricked down her nose and into her lip, Natasha wiped away. When her frozen hands were stiff and didn’t want to keep holding Stark’s arm and waist, she tightened her grip, and kept walking. And when her ankle gave out, and she nearly fell on top of Tony, she got them both back up.

She’d been through worse. She could do this. She’d been through worse.

Where the hell was civilization? There had to be someone nearby, a cabin or a small village, or a plant or something, goddammit! Tony wouldn’t last much longer. She was probably making things worse by dragging his feet through the fucking snow, but she couldn’t truly carry him and they couldn’t sit around and wait for Hydra.

Her legs trembled and threatened to give out but she gritted her teeth and kept going.

A branch snapped to her left. Natasha whirled and had her gun yanked free within a heartbeat. Without her arms around his waist, Stark slumped to the ground, but she could pick him back up as soon as she evaluated the threat. Arms steady despite the tremors wracking through her, she narrowed her eyes at the man staring at her with his jaw dropped.

Bright orange covered his chest—a puffy neon vest covering thick thermal gear and a sturdy coat. A shot gun was in his arms and a ridiculous orange hat sat on his head. The goatee he sprouted was a ridiculous knock-off of Tony’s, and would have looked less goofy if he’d gone for an actual beard. While Natasha stared him down he opened, then closed, his mouth three times before a little squeak finally broke free.

Red dotted his cheeks and he cleared his throat. “Um. Hi. Y’all....Y’all in some trouble?”

Natasha nodded, the rest of her not moving an inch. “He fell through the ice.”

“Shit,” the man winced. “He’s still alive?”

“He was the last I checked.” She willed it to still be true. She refused to accept the other option.

“I have a truck? Not far away. I can...I can help. Carry him there for you, get him to a hospital? There's a town nearby.”

Trust the man or not? It could be a trap by Hydra. But there really wasn’t much choice. “I’ll take the shot gun. You can carry him.”

“Yes ma’am.” He placed the gun on the ground instead of approaching her with it—-smart guy—-and hurried over to Tony. Then he gaped at him. “Oh my God. Is that Tony Stark?”

Natasha stiffened. If the man thought he would take advantage of a vulnerable Tony Stark, she would gut him like a fish. “Who he is doesn’t matter.”

“Right. Yeah. Of course not.” The man looked over at her, eyes wide. “Oh, man. You’re Black Widow. Tony Stark _and_ Black Widow. Wow.”

“Are you going to help us or not?”

“Yes! I’ll always help Tony Stark, he’s my hero. I actually ran into him once, a few years ago? I helped him then.” He blinked, as if the memory overpowered his fawning. “I helped him then. I can help him now! Okay, okay. Black Widow and Tony Stark need help. I can do this.”

Reaching down, he picked Tony up in a fireman’s carry. “This way. It’s not far.”

Nodding, Natasha picked up the shot gun and aimed it at him. If this was a trap, she was not going in unprepared. “Lead the way.”

“Oh my God,” he scooted away from her and turned around, whispering “Tony needs Gary. You can do this. You can _do_ this. Tony needs Gary. And Gary needs Tony.”

With that, he led her through the trees.

 

 

 

Natasha glanced around the ridiculously small emergency room while nurses helped get Tony into a bed and checked his vitals. His heart was still beating, but he hadn’t moved in some time. Nat eyed the waiting room and lobby, lips curling.

This place better have what Tony needed or she would be a force to reckon with.

As if she’d heard her thoughts, a tall nurse appeared in front of her. “We might not be the largest or most advanced hospital,” she said firmly, directing Natasha out of the way, “but we know what we’re doing. Believe it or not, he’s not the first case of severe hypothermia we’ve seen.”

Acknowledging the light scolding, Natasha moved back a little to let them work. The nurse stayed right by her and lifted an eyebrow. “Why don’t you let me tend to some of your injuries, and I’ll have them call me if anything changes?”

“I don’t leave his side,” Natasha said. There were far too many variables for her to go to another room.

“Fine,” the nurse huffed. “You can stay. But sit down, will you? I saw your limp. And you’ve got a lot of cuts that need looked at.”

Natasha sat, keeping her eyes on Tony while the nurse bandaged her wounds and brought her a boot for her ankle.

Forty-five minutes later, after they had stabilized Stark and moved him to his own room, Natasha made three phone calls. One to Maria Hill to let her know about Sitwell, one to Rhodey to inform him of their situation and to ask for backup and an extraction, and one to Pepper (which lasted a good twenty minutes where she promised the CEO Tony would be fine and home soon).

By the time she ended her calls and felt the itch at the back of her shoulder blades finally start to recede, Natasha was so exhausted she nearly fell asleep in the uncomfortable hospital chair.

“You should get some rest, Sleeping Beauty.”

Her eyes flicked from the door she had been steadily watching to the man in the bed. Tony stared back at he with tired but bright eyes. 

Oh, thank God.

“Not sure that should be _my_ nickname anymore, Stark." She said lightly to cover the relief flooding through her. "It’s about time you woke up. How are you feeling?”

“Fucking freezing,” he grumbled. “Stupid ice. Falling under was terrifying. Almost gives me a newfound respect for Ca—-“ he broke off, looking like he was about to bite off his tongue. Natasha blinked at him, well aware of who he'd been about to name.

They stared at each other for a long moment, in total silence.

Natasha debated pushing it. Tony hadn’t brought up Steve willingly in over a year. What happened in Siberia was not well known, but she was knew. It was part of the reason she had come back to the Avengers. To try and fix her family. She hadn’t exactly succeeded yet; Captain America was a vigilante, still on the run, and Iron Man had no inclination to care about him one way or the other. It had been far too long for Tony and Steve to go without talking, without discussing the horrible events that had shattered the team.

But bringing it up while Tony lay in a hospital bed probably wasn’t the right time.

“It was good of you to test the ice, see how easy it was for it to break,” she teased softly instead. 

Tony’s eyes crinkled in relief as he smiled back at her. “Yeah, well. Couldn’t let Hydra follow us. Speaking of,” he shifted, grimacing a bit. “Wanna fill me in on the Sitwell situation?”

Sitwell. Damn sniveling, pain in the ass, Sitwell. “He was a Shield agent, that turned out to be Hydra," Natasha said. "Thought he died when he was tossed out of a car into oncoming traffic.”

“Why do you think he has a grudge against you?”

“I threw him off a roof.”

Tony burst out laughing. “Jesus, Romanoff. You really can be scary.”

“I had somebody waiting to catch him, he was perfectly fine,” she grumbled while Tony chuckled.

“I’m sure that he felt reassured as he fell,” Tony said.

“Ha ha. Here,” she thrust the cell phone the tall nurse had given her at him. “Call your fiancée. I told her you would be fine, but I’m sure she’d rather hear from you. I’m going to go find your doctor and tell her you’re awake.”

“Can you bring back coffee? What?!” He pouted when she turned to scowl at him. “It’s hot! Lovely, hot coffee. You’re supposed to have warm drinks when you’re hypothermic, it’s a thing!”

“I’ll be sure to bring you back some nice, decaffeinated, hot tea.”

“What? No! Romanoff, come on!”

“And some chicken broth.”

“Dammit, Tasha,” Tony grumbled, picking up the phone. “You’re so much meaner then Pep. She would have gotten me coffee.”

Natasha laughed, moving to push open the door.

Tony made an annoyed huff. “Romanoff, is this phone dead? It’s not turning on.”

“What?” Natasha flipped back around, saw the black screen. “It was fully charged when—“

She cut off when the lights in the hospital went out.

And gunfire erupted down the hall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about another cliffhanger, but this story just seems to demand them :)
> 
> Also, I totally did not set out to have Gary from IM3 be the hunter they run into, but then he started speaking, and my mind went, "Yes. That's totally Gary." Because Gary loves Tony. And apparently has land in Colorado that he goes hunting on with his family.


	6. Chapter 6

Natasha was out of the hospital room in seconds.

“Romanoff!” Tony shouted behind her. From the clanking and cursing she could hear, she knew he was leaning over to yank out his IV. “Goddammit, Tasha, don’t just go running off!”

She ignored him. Straining her ears to block out Tony and the terrified screams of nurses and patients, Natasha focused on the gunfire. The pauses between shots, how far away they sounded, and how many guns went off at the same time were quickly collected and analyzed in her mind.

At least five men approached, on the other side of the hospital, where the ER and entrance were. Natasha listened, waiting to see if more joined them, but it seemed that Hydra was starting with a few elite agents and going from there.

She could work with that.

They’d been watching the hospitals. She’d planned for that, demanded they put a fake name on Tony’s chart. But, well. He was Tony Stark. Everyone knew his face. It was honestly impressive they’d had this much time, though dammit, if they’d waited another forty-five minutes she could have had some backup.

Nothing she could do about it now. Vision and Rhodes still had at _least_ half an hour before they arrived. She needed to get Tony the hell out.

The tall nurse rushing by gave her an idea, and she stepped in front of the woman to get her attention.

“Get Stark up and have him wait over there,” she said, gesturing to a small nook in the corner. “Then hide in one of the rooms.”

“I have other patients to care for—-“

“They’re after us,” Natasha interrupted. “Once we’re gone, everyone else should be fine. Help Tony while I buy us a few minutes.”

“All right,” the nurse said, and hurried off. Whirling, Natasha rushed down the hall as fast as she could with the damn boot on. That was going to get annoying, but taking it off would make things harder on her in the long run. Not to mention the lecture she’d get from Tony and Pepper.

She’d deal with it.

Limping around the corner, she saw a nurse’s station and threw herself behind the counter. Gunshots rang over her head, and she huffed out a breath, annoyed at how slow she had to go with the boot on. They’d made their way further down the hall than she’d wanted.

Two nurses, one male and one female, watched her with terrified expressions.

“Hi,” she said, crouching next to them, and pulling out her gun. Then she engaged her Widow’s Bite gauntlets. “Don’t worry, they’ll be gone in a moment.” She sent them a brief smile. “Thanks for all you do.”

When the approaching footsteps drew right next to the nurse’s station, she spun to the left and cracked her gun into the first guy’s knee.

He crumpled, and she threw her arm out and shocked him with her tasers.

One down, she thought, pushing herself up to stand straight and using her elbow to slam the next guy’s gun up and out of his hands. He hissed, striking out, and a harsh punch slammed into her face, splitting her lip.

“Ow,” Natasha snarled. Retaliating with a punch of her own, she made the man’s head flinch back, and followed it up with a kick to his stomach.

The kick made her place all her weight on her booted foot, which hurt like hell but actually helped her spin on the boot to kick out at a woman trying to knife her in the back. Natasha’s kick had her dropping the knife, and trying to strike out. Smirking, Nat blocked that hit with her forearm, then grabbed the woman’s wrist and flipped her around to crash into the floor.

She sent Bites at the woman and the man groaning and trying to get to his feet.

A gun barked to her left, and Natasha returned fire, downing another woman with a shot to her side. The last man leapt her way, but Nat stepped to the side, zapping him with a Bite. Surprisingly, the man stayed conscious through the electric shocks and sneered at her.

Fuck that. Nat dodged the fist her punched out, put her weight back on her bad ankle, and stomped on his toe with her heel.

The she cracked her gun against his temple. This time, he stayed down.

One group beaten. From the sounds of it, she potentially had another few minutes before another group got any closer. Since it was Hydra, they’d likely brought plenty of backup. Knowing Sitwell, he was hiding in a van down the street, barking orders at the men he sent in. He always avoided outright combat when he was in Shield.

That probably should have been a sign.

She nodded at the nurses and limped back down the hallway, hoping the tall nurse had gotten Tony to the nook.

She really shouldn’t have assumed Stark would listen. He met her in the hall, eyes set and determined, despite the way he held his ribs and the hospital gown he still wore.

She decided not to mention it.

He was already talking. “What’ve we got? Hydra? FRIDAY’s sending a suit along with Rhodey and Viz, if we can hold them off...”

She grabbed his arm and pulled him back. “We don’t have that long. We need to get away from the patients here. But they’re blocking the entrances.”

“Okay, so we go out guns blazing.”

“Not even I can take on 50 Hydra agents with one gun, Tony.”

“Fifty?!” He sputtered. 

She shrugged. “It’s you and me. I’m assuming they came prepared.”

He snorted. “True. Honestly, we’re lucky they didn’t send the Red...”

Natasha slapped a hand over his mouth. “Do NOT say it. We don’t need that kind of luck right now.”

He lifted an eyebrow until she moved her band. “So, what do we do?”

“I’m working on it,” she muttered. The roof was out, they’d have nowhere to go once they got up there. Same with the front and back entrances...windows wouldn’t be a very good option, either, but they were running damn low on options. Picking another hall at random, Natasha limped around a different corner and came face to face with a barrel of a shotgun.

She just barely recognized the man standing next to the short woman holding it in time. Abruptly disbanding the attack she’d planned, Natasha screeched to a halt, right arm lifted and ready to use the Widow’s Bites just in case.

“Oh my God. Mom. Mom! Put the gun down, something magical is happening again!”

Tony’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. “Holy shit. Never thought I’d see you again...errr...”

“Gary,” he said. “It’s Gary, remember? You used my van.”

“Yes, yes I did. No way I could forget about that,” Tony said. Natasha frowned. Clearly there was a story there she’d have to hear later.

“You need to move,” she told Gary and his mother. “We don’t have time for this, really bad people are on their way.”

“You need help.” Gary’s mom nodded. “Good thing I stopped by to see if Tony Stark was really here. We’ll help you out.” She smiled brightly at Natasha. “Gary just loves Tony.”

Tony shook his head. “You’ll be saving my ass twice, Gary, that’s... there are no words. I’ve got nothing.”

“Technically, three times.” Natasha said. “He’s the one that got us to the hospital.”

Tony let out a choked laugh.

Gary’s mom hoisted her gun up. “And we haven’t saved you yet. But we can help. What’s the plan?”

Natasha’s mind whirled. For whatever reason, the Red Hulk hadn’t been released on the hospital yet. They could try sneaking out the window, but she had no desire to be sniped before they both got out.

Which left them with one option.

With just the two of them, taking on Hydra had low odds, but if they had a little backup...

It would be enough to hold them off until the other Avengers arrived.

Natasha handed her gun to Tony. “We go out guns blazing.”

His eyes lit up. “Excellent. I’m awesome at cheap tricks.” He frowned. "Shit. I gotta find pants first."

“Can you cover us?” She asked Gary’s mom.

She nodded while Gary pulled out his phone. 

“Man, I wish I had my van,” he said. “I’m going to record this, is everyone...”

Tony cut him off. “Actually, Gare-Bear, can I see that phone for a moment? I’ve got an AI to call.”

“Of course you can use my phone! It would be an honor, Mr. Stark.”

“Great, thanks.” Tony accepted his phone and then turned, holding the gun Natasha had given him back out to her. “Shouldn’t you be the one with this?”

Natasha grinned. “I won’t need it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I managed to end a chapter without a terrible cliffhanger this time! 
> 
>  
> 
> *The author cannot promise this will ever happen again*


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heads up for Tony cursing again this chapter.
> 
> A lot.

Natasha waited by the entrance to the waiting area they were in, backed up against the wall. Tony, Gary, and his mom crouched behind a counter holding a small coffee pot and sugar packets. As footsteps slowly trekked down the hall, Natasha counted to thirty, and let them get closer.

When she got to twenty-five, she took a deep breath. There were at least twelve men now. Sitwell had gotten smarter, or more nervous. Either way, she would handle it.

At thirty, she moved.

As she did, music blasted through the speakers.

Despite the situation, Natasha laughed. Only Tony.

_“I don’t give a damn ‘bout my bad reputation...”_

Nat flew into the hallway, ducking the first man’s shot by sliding to her knees. Popping up fast, she grabbed him by the waist and flipped him around in time to use him as a shield. The bullets sank into him instead of Natasha, and when his legs went limp, she snatched his gun and fired.

The next man immediately went down. She whirled out of the way, into the doorway of an empty room, and waited.

_“You’re livin’ in the past, it’s a new generation...”_

Using her favorite trick of flipping up on a man’s shoulders and hurtling him back down was out, due to the damn ankle and her boot. So was her next favorite move of leaping off the wall to use a kick attack.

But she had other tricks up her sleeve. The man and woman that approached clearly thought she would just sit there and allow them to shoot her. That wouldn't do. When the man jumped in front of her, gun out, Nat dodged the shot, returning one of her own. He grabbed his neck, gasping, as Natasha nimbly slid past him on her good knee, and fired up at the woman, who was shooting at a now empty doorway.

_“A girl can do what she wants to do, and that’s what I’m gonna do...”_

As the woman fell, Nat was back up, shooting at the next assailant. The idiot wasn’t focusing on her, which was his demise. She aimed at both his feet while he fired at Tony.

Because of course Stark had entered the fight. He dodged the bullet narrowly, and took down the next man lined up behind him. 

_“And I don’t give a damn ‘bout my reputation...”_

While the man Natasha shot in the feet screamed in agony, the next woman threw herself at Tony. She slammed into him, sending the two of them crashing to the ground. Tony grunted, hissing something that sounded like, “damn ribs,” and rolled, slamming an elbow up and into her nose.

Natasha caught sight of another man behind them. Her arm flew up, and deployed the last of the Widow’s Bite shocks. His eyes rolled as he collapsed.

_“Oh, no.....not me....”_

Tony was up, shooting at the next guy. When the man fired back, Tony yelped, a hand going to the graze on his neck.

“Ouch, you fucking asshole!” Tony snarled. He went to punch the guy, but the man dodged it, and scampered down the hall toward the waiting area they'd been in.

“Don’t hurt Tony Stark!” Gary bellowed, apparently leaving the safety of the counter.

“Gary, get back!” Tony hollered.

“It’s okay, Mr. Stark! Mom and I’ve got this! Right, Mom?”

Her answer was the shotgun going off.

Natasha really liked Gary’s mom.

The music cut off. “Boss, there’s another team being deployed into the hospital.”

The last three Hydra agents smirked at Natasha.

“You three are morons if you think you’re surviving until they get here,” Tony told them as Natasha moved, quickly throwing her now empty gun at the last woman’s head. “Fry, where’s my music? We need it back, Natasha needs kickass music to kick ass. What’s the ETA on the Mach 84? And Rhodey, I want my Rhodey,” he said, grunting as a man attacked him. Natasha had a split second of concern, but realized she didn’t need it. Tony had taken all their sparring lessons to heart, and had the man’s head wrapped in his arms, cutting off his air.

_“Never said I wanted to improve my station...”_

The last foolish man aimed at Natasha’s vulnerable foot as the music kicked back on. Luckily, Nat moved in time for it to hit her metal heel. The bullet didn’t make it through, but it stung like hell, and Natasha hissed.

“Oh, you are so dead,” Tony told him, letting his now unconscious guy fall. “FRIDAY? ETA?”

_"And I'm only doin' good when I'm havin' fun, And I don't have to please no one..."_

“They’re still at least twenty minutes out, Boss.”

“Well get them here faster, Baby Girl, there’s probably around thirty guys still out there.”

_"And I don't give a damn 'bout my bad reputation..."_

"There are sixty-three men, Boss.”

“Sixty...” Tony trailed off while Natasha ruthlessly finished the last Hydra agent off. The music snapped off, and Tony slumped a little. “Sixty-three? What the hell?! Why aren’t they all attacking at once?”

“They’re trying to wear us down,” Natasha said, eyes on the door, ignoring her racing heartbeat. The next group would be there any moment. 

“They have to know we’d have back up arriving,” he said, panting a little, trying to catch his breath.

“Sitwell’s planning something. He wasn’t much for combat, but he was great at deception.”

“It still doesn’t make sense, Nat, we gotta-”

“Boss, even more men are heading your way,” FRIDAY interrupted.

“How many, Fry?”

“All of them.”

“ETA?”

“Seventeen minutes.”

"Punch it, FRIDAY, the suit can go faster than that."

"I'm doing my best, Boss."

“We can hold them off that long.” Gary and his mom stepped up next to them. His mother jerked her chin up. “It’ll be nothing, we can easily—-“ she broke off as a roar bellowed outside the hospital.

Tony paled. “Shit. Shit, shit, fuckity shit.”

Nat couldn't help but agree.

“Mr. Stark? What was that?” Gary asked, peering over his mothers shoulder.

“Rage monster, Gare-Bear. You and your mom might want to skedaddle now.”

Natasha stiffened at the sound of approaching footsteps. “It’s too late for that,” she said, as Jasper Sitwell walked around the corner. As FRIDAY predicted, a large group of armed men lined up behind him. She could take out another fifteen potentially. Tony another four or five, and Gary's mom another handful, as well. 

It wasn't going to be enough.

She snarled at the cocky smile Sitwell sent her.

“No one will be going anywhere,” Sitwell said, adjusting his tie. “Unless you want me to release the Red Hulk on this hospital.”

Shit. She'd known it was a high possibility, knew it was likely to happen, but they were so close to having backup arrive...

"You goddamn asshole, you can't release a Hulk on a hospital!" Tony shouted.

"Of course I can," Sitwell said, raising an eyebrow. "It took us a little longer than planned to get him here,” he continued over Tony's curses and threats. “He has a one-track mind, these days. Only seems interested in destroying, we had to wait while he finished demolishing the next town over before directing him this way.”

“Friday,” Tony said softly.

“On it, Boss. The Department of Damage Control and Relief Foundation will be directed there soon.”

“Not gonna be much help,” Sitwell said. “It’s pretty much been reduced to ash.”

“You son of a bitch,” Tony growled.

“Oh, please, Stark. We all know how many cities you destroyed. Merchant of Death, you were called, remember?”

Tony bared his teeth. “I might have been a selfish bastard for a few years there, but I never sold my soul, you Hydra dipshit.”

“What do you want, Sitwell?” Natasha asked, before Tony had the chance to lash out again.

"What do people usually grab Tony Stark for? We need him to help us with something."

"Sure, I'll do that as soon as the sun shines from your ass, fuckface."

"We figured that would be your answer," Sitwell said calmly, completely unbothered by Tony's outburst. "Which is why we'll be bringing along incentive."

"I'll do it," Gary said instantly. His mother shushed him, but he ignored her. "I'll help Mr. Stark however I can."

Tony sighed, and pulled Gary aside, speaking quietly. "Gary...as much as I appreciate it, I can't let you do that."

"But if I go, Agent Romanoff can lead a rescue party..." Gary whispered.

"Which is why Sitwell will never let her out of his sight, Gare-Bear. It's a nice try, but it's never gonna happen."

“11 minutes, Boss,” Friday informed them quietly.

“Oh, do you think your teammates will get here in time to help you?” Sitwell sneered. “Not going to happen. The two of you will come with us, or we release the monster. Your call.”

“They aren’t running from a fight.” Gary’s mom hoisted her gun. “And neither will I.”

“There are children in this hospital,” Sitwell said. Gary’s mom dropped her gun. “That’s what I thought. What’ll it be, Agent Romanoff? Will you be coming along quietly, or does the monster get to play?”

She held his stare just long enough to make him nervous. Just long enough to make him gulp a little, to make his hands twitch against his sides. Cause a bead of sweat drip down his forehead. Odds were good that no one would want harm to come to children, but she WAS the Black Widow. There was a chance she would refuse to rise to the bait, and Sitwell knew it.

She continued her gaze, memorizing his tells. They would be useful for later.

"Eight minutes, Boss." FRIDAY's voice was barely audible.

"If you don't move, I relase the Hulk." Sitwell snapped.

“Tasha,” Tony murmured, so quietly no one else could hear.

Nat put her gun down, and held her arms up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tony would totally blast Joan Jett during a fight, especially one as fitting as Bad Reputation for Natasha :D


	8. Chapter 8

Only the knowledge that Sitwell would follow through on his threat to release the Red Hulk on the hospital kept Natasha from destroying everyone in the SUV.

The cuffs binding her arms behind her back didn’t hurt. But she could have gotten out of them if it weren’t for Sitwell’s threat.

Tony sat next to her, clearly realizing the same, because for once he wasn’t fidgeting or restlessly drumming his hands on his thighs, like he was itching to enact a plan.

Instead, his attention was solely concentrated on Sitwell.

“How do you control him?” Tony asked, narrowing his eyes. “Does Hydra have some kind of magical Hulk obedience class? Or is it a positive reinforcement kinda thing? Do you give him Pop-Tarts? That was always Thor’s favorite, but our Hulk seemed to like them, too. Got a package of Pop-Tarts in your pocket?”

Sitwell blinked at him as if he were insane. “No.”

“Too bad, I’m really fucking hungry. Got any food? You yanked me out of the hospital before I got my jello, which was really quite rude by the way. Where are we going? Will there be food there? Are you listening to me, Shitwell? I’m speaking, you should listen. Is there food during this superhero kidnapping attempt?”

Sitwell’s eyes flicked to Natasha. “Does he ever shut up?”

Clearly the man didn’t really know a thing about Tony Stark. She ignored the question, and instead asked one of her own. “How are you alive?”

“Yeah, I heard the Winter Solider threw your Hydra ass into a bunch of cars,” Tony piped up. “How’d you survive that?”

“Cut off one head, and two more grows.”

Natasha lifted an eyebrow. “That didn’t actually answer my question.”

“Hydra has been attempting to recreate Dr. Erskine’s serum for decades. I found a version that kept me alive when facing almost certain death. It took me a number of years to heal. But here I am.”

“Convenient,” Natasha murmured. “And the Hulk? Why did you create him?”

“ _How_ did you create him?” Tony interjected.

Sitwell shrugged. “More experiments. Which is why we need you, Mr. Stark. Something went wrong for our volunteer. He didn’t end up right.”

“Oh, you mean the 'melts everything he comes into contact with when he gets super angry' issue? Yeah I could see how that could be a bitch,” Tony snorted. “Unfortunately, you’ve got the wrong Science Bro. Gamma Radiation isn’t really my thing.”

“Neither is biological DNA coding,” Sitwell pointed out. “And yet you fixed Extremis.”

“Yeah, well, genius.” Tony grinned, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I’m not making another Hulk for you, Sitwell. You shouldn’t have kidnapped us. It literally never ends well when people try and force me to make things.”

“On the contrary, history indicates you work quite well when you have the proper motivation.” The car came to a stop and Sitwell opened the door and slid out.

“What does that mean?” Tony demanded, hustling out after him. Natasha followed, limping, every inch of her tense. Sitwell was way too confident Tony would work for him.

“What the fuck are you talking about, Shitwell?” Tony’s eyes flicked to Natasha’s while they walked inside a large mansion. Cold creeped down Natasha’s spine. This was too casual. There were no guns, no henchmen waiting around to threaten them.

What did Sitwell have?

While they walked through the mansion, the unease Natasha felt only grew worse. The decor was classic, something that maybe could have been relaxing, but Natasha barely registered it. She was exhausted, she hurt everywhere, her right hand was falling asleep thanks to the handcuffs, and she wanted nothing more than to sink down into one of the couches and take a nap.

But her body was on high alert. Hulk or not, if she didn’t get a clue was to what Sitwell was hinting at in the next five minutes Natasha was getting them the hell out of there.

“Look, asshole, I’m not working for you, and I’m for damn sure not creating another Hulk, so just let us go before the rest of my team gets here and kicks your ass,” Tony stated. The elevator doors opened, revealing a medical floor. Natasha’s heart-rate picked up. This was bad, there was no way this would end well.

Sitwell walked to one of the curtains surrounding the beds, and yanked the curtain back. “Are you sure about that?”

The recognition was instant, slamming into Natasha so quickly she felt like she’d been smacked in the face by Molijnr.

Natasha closed her eyes, not able to look at the person in the bed. Fury flashed through her, hot and boiling, sparking and igniting in a white hot flash of rage. Nostrils flaring, fists clenched, Nat fought for control, trying to remember where she was, who she had chosen to be. 

When she opened her eyes again, the barely controlled flash of anger had shifted, going from a raging inferno to deadly, lethal ice.

Sitwell would die. Painfully.

“Took a while to orchestrate this,” Sitwell was saying. “I honestly wasn’t sure I’d be able to pull it off, which is why Agent Romanoff is extra incentive. Your guards are good, Stark. So are the fighting skills you’ve clearly taught. But Hydra is better.”

Tony hadn’t moved. Natasha wondered if he even could. All the blood had drained out of his face, and his eyes were absolutely shattered while he took in the person broken on the bed.

She’d only seen that kind of utter devastation on his face once before. While watching a video of a conversation that occurred right before a terrible battle in a bunker in Siberia.

“So. Will you help us or not, Mr. Stark?”

“I am going to kill you,” Tony said quietly.

“I’m sure,” Sitwell rolled his eyes. “That wasn’t an answer. If you don’t answer in the affirmative, a lethal injection will be administered into that IV. Death will be instant. Last chance. Will you work for us, or not?”

“Go to hell,” Tony said hoarsely. “If you do _one thing_ to harm—-“

“You’re not in a position to be bargaining, Stark. Don’t make threats you can’t follow through on.”

The handcuffs clattered to the floor. All possibilities of waiting for backup, of hoping Rhodes and Vision and FRIDAY found them and helped correct the situation quickly emptied out of her head as the thin leash Nat had on her control snapped, and her fury consumed all rational thought. 

Natasha launched herself at Sitwell. Throwing her arms out, she was curled around him in moments, her hands on his throat. 

He choked, smacking at her hands. Sneering down at him, Natasha pressed her knee into his stomach and pinned him to the wall so he couldn’t move. Distantly she acknowledged she should have better control, but restraint had flown of her the moment she saw the figure on the bed.

Tightening her hands, Natasha squeezed, appreciating the way Sitwell choked, smirking at the way he turned purple. And she kept digging her fingers in, kept blocking off his air supply because he dared... _he dared_....

Footsteps thundered into the room but Natasha didn’t care. Sitwell’s arms were dropping to his sides, the bastard was nearly dead, and she was going to send him to the doors of death herself. But arms circled from behind her, yanking her away.

“Nat.” Tony’s terrified voice was in her ear before she could attack him, his arms wrapping around her, hugging tight. “Nat, you can’t, oh God, you can’t, please.”

She stiffened, preparing to fling away even him, but his arms tightened, her back pressed against his chest, and she heard a hitch in his breath before he spoke again.

“Not that I don’t appreciate it, Nat, fuck, I want to choke the bastard too, but please, _please_ stop.” He shook, the shivers shuddering through him and into her, but didn’t let go. She blinked—Tony sounded destroyed, Tony was begging. What the hell was happening? Tony Stark didn’t beg anymore then she let little worms like Sitwell live after threatening the ones she loved.

Dropping his voice an octave, Tony pleaded with her again. “Please, Nat. Look around. You can kill him, I promise, but not yet. We’re surrounded, Nat, they’re pointing guns at—“ his voice hitched again. “You’ve gotta stop, Tasha, PLEASE.”

She stopped. Until she forced herself to still she hadn’t even realized she was still struggling against Tony, digging her nails into his forearm. Drawing blood. She dropped her hands, and did as he asked. She took in the room.

Well. At least she knew where all of Sitwell’s henchmen were. Nearly twenty minions huddled around them, all of them with guns drawn. More shifted around outside in the hall. Some of them had guns aimed at Natasha.

The majority of them were aimed at the bed.

“You—-“ Sitwell rasped, massaging his throat. “You will pay for that.”

“I’d do it again,” she said. Behind her, Tony huffed out a breath—it couldn’t be called a laugh, not in this terrible situation—-and dropped his head on the back of her neck. Tremors still wracked through him, and though he was no longer holding her back, he hadn’t let her go.

They were a team. They could get through this, figure this out. 

It grounded her, kept the red haze of anger from firing up again and putting lives at risk. Steadied her enough so that when Sitwell asked, “Will you be coming working for us or not, Stark?” she was already thinking three steps ahead.

So that when Tony nodded, and Sitwell motioned for them to follow him, she was able to step away.

And leave Peter Parker lying still on the bed.


	9. Chapter 9

"This is your own fault, Stark.” Sitwell guided them back down the hall, shoved them back into the elevator. Tony stumbled a little at his words, and Natasha steadied him, keeping her arm on his. After taking a moment, Tony snapped his head up to glare at Sitwell. And though his eyes promised vengeance, he didn’t give Sitwell the satisfaction of responding.

Sitwell kept talking anyway, smirking at Tony. “There have been numerous photos of you and your intern taken. You seemed to take your mentoring seriously, which was rather foolish of you. I would have figured you’d have caught on by now not to let people get to close to you. They always seem to die, do they not?”

“Lots of people die, Sitwell,” Natasha said in a bored voice before Tony could react. She knew how deeply the words would slice into him. “Even you.”

“So will you, Romanoff,” Sitwell spat. The elevator doors opened and they again stepped out into a new hallway. “Sooner than you think.”

Natasha shrugged. “Maybe.”

Sitwell sneered at her, but Natasha didn’t rise to the bait. Keeping Tony stable was all that mattered, so she squeezed his arm a little when Sitwell ran his mouth again.

“Hydra’s been watching your intern for months, waiting for the right opportunity,” Sitwell continued, ignoring Natasha and focusing on Tony. “You do protect him well, Stark. But when he went off on his own for a little ski trip with friends? Well. It was almost too easy then. One little tranquilizer and boom. He was ours.”

She was going to have to work with Peter on going off without telling anyone, on making sure he had his suit and all his bases covered. From the way Tony closed his eyes in defeat a little, he was thinking the same.

When he opened them back up, the fire that had made lesser men cower was blazing out of them. “That doesn’t explain why his face is bashed, Shitwell,” Tony growled.

“He got in a few hits before the tranq kicked in. Powerful ones, too, for such a scrawny kid. We couldn’t let a teenager make a fool of us, Stark. He needed to learn a lesson.”

“Teenagers make you feel threatened these days, huh, Sitwell? That does make you seem foolish,” Natasha said. Next to her, Tony fought to control his breathing, clenching and unclenching his fists, while Natasha kept a comforting grip on his arm.

“Why.” Tony demanded. “Why the kid, why not just come straight for me?”

She knew what he was really asking. How much did Hydra know about Peter Parker?

“We need you to fix the Red Hulk, Stark. Luring you out here was easy enough, but we needed a reason to make you do as we wish. Agent Romanoff was a nice surprise, but we all know she can easily withstand torture. Not that we won’t enact on it.” He taunted at Nat. Keeping a grip on her own emotions, she merely sent him her worst glare and stared directly at the bruises darkening on his neck.

Sitwell looked away. Point for her.

“We figured the kid would be the easiest to nab," Sitwell said, gulping a little. "Rhodes rarely leaves your Compound. The other Avengers aren’t exactly around anymore. And Ms. Potts seems to be constantly surrounded. Going after her would be too public.”

“Pepper would take down Hydra without breaking a nail before breakfast,” Tony snarled.

Sitwell shrugged. “Perhaps. So we focused on the intern. Didn’t plan on it taking so long, or for all the guards you have tailing him.” He tilted his head. “Nor did we think Agent Romanoff would care so much for a random kid.”

She already knew she had given away too much, that she never should have shown she cared for Peter. But she’d also already figured out an excuse. So her comeback rolled easily off her tongue after Sitwell’s jab in a deadly, void of emotion, voice. “He’s a kid, Sitwell. I’ve got bad memories of kids being hurt, it makes me angry.” She stared at his neck again, and thought, what the hell. It worked for Bruce. “You won’t like me when I’m angry.”

Once again, Sitwell backed down. Apparently her anger was comparable to a Hulk’s. She’d be concerned about what that meant regarding her own anger issues, but really, she had no problems with it. Especially if it made Sitwell uneasy and filled with terror. Anything to help her get Tony and Peter out of this.

Stopping in front of a large set of lab doors, Sitwell gestured for them to go inside. “Work your magic, Stark. Fix our Hulk, and we let the kid go. Don’t, and that lethal injection is immediately administered. Your choice.”

“Fuck you, Shitwell.” Tony stormed into the lab. Natasha went to follow, but Sitwell’s men stepped in her way.

She was pretty sure he wasn’t going to show her to a lab of her own.

“Not so fast, Agent Romanoff. I have other plans for you.”

 

 

 

 

The mansion had a maze of tunnels underneath it.

That wasn’t so surprising, in itself. They were in the mountains, it was Hydra, of course there were tunnels.

A small walkway led to the edge of a gaping hole, where Natasha could look down and see the maze stretched out, covering miles. The walls were at least twenty feet deep, and were slick with mud and other horrors Natasha didn’t want to linger on. Darkness leered up at her—-lights littered the ground surrounding the trenches so random fools wouldn’t fall in, but there were no lights in the tunnels themselves. Nothing stirred in the deep and the dark, but Nat got a bad feeling that there was more down there than met the eye.

It reminded her of a scene out of Tony’s favorite scifi movies. She sighed. Looked like she had her own personal maze of horrors to be thrown in.

Sitwell watched her take it in. If she hadn’t already planned to kill him slowly, the arrogant, sniveling look on his face then would have done it. “Do you remember when you threw me off the roof?”

Well, she couldn't say she hadn't seen that coming. “Don’t tell me you’re still mad about that.”

“And then I was practically hand-delivered to the Winter Solider, thanks to you and Rogers, and thrown out of a car!”

Natasha shrugged, because she knew it would piss him off and potentially make him make mistakes. “And yet, you live. I’m not sure why you’re so upset.”

“Do you know how long it took me to get back into Hydra’s good graces?” He was nearly shaking in his fury at her.

She quirked an eyebrow. This was too easy. “Did I make life as a traitor difficult for you?”

“You’re such a bitch, Romanoff. I’m going to enjoy this.” Sitwell grinned. “Let’s see how you handle getting kicked in the chest.”

The little weasel didn’t even do it himself. Nodding at one of his minions, he stepped back while the man slammed his boot toward Natasha.

She snatched his foot, twisted, and flipped him over in two seconds.

“Sorry,” Natasha said. “You were saying?”

Hissing, Sitwell snatched at his gun, aiming it at her forehead.

Oh. Maybe she’d pushed him a little too far. “If you shoot me in the forehead, Sitwell, I won’t get a chance to play in the fun little terror maze you have below.”

“Good point,” he said, and lowered the gun. Then, before she could leap the hell out of the way, he flung his arm back up and fired.

She still managed to dodge the worst of it; the bullet missed her chest but grazed her arm. Nothing too terrible, she’d certainly had worse, but it was enough that the biting sting of pain distracted her for an instant, and had her other hand coming up to slap over the wound.

As a result, she was caught off-guard. Damn Sitwell.

This time when the henchmen reared out to kick her, she wasn’t able to grab his foot or deflect. His foot connected painfully with her chest, making little dots appear in in line of sight. Air whooshing out of her, Nat had a brief moment to think, _Shit_ , before she was suddenly weightless, flying backward into the maze.

Reflexes had her twisting, grabbing on to the sides of the wall, scrambling for purchase. Fingernails ripped and her hands were damn near gouged open, but she caught on to a ledge and managed not to fall the entire twenty feet.

Stinging, biting pain surged through her fingertips and into her chest, but Natasha refused to let go and tightened her fingers on to the ledge. If she could swing to the left she could get her good foot on another ledge...

Grunting, she shifted, hefting her foot up and over. For a moment she clung, desperately holding on, hovering between safety and plummeting. Her foot connected with the wall, and she inched her foot out, trying to find leverage, determined to stay the hell on.....

But her damn foot slid off. The force of her foot falling off the ledge and whooshing back into the open air was too much for her desperate grab on the ledge to hold on.

Her fingers slipped.

Stomach plunging to her toes, Natasha tumbled down into the darkness until she collided with the ground. The air whipped out of he lungs so forcefully she couldn’t move, couldn’t think, couldn’t breath. Only stare up at the edge she’d been thrown off of, pathetically praying her body would remember how to work.

This was turning into the trip from hell.

Eventually her chest heaved—a gulp of air broke through and rushed into her lungs. Mud squished and surrounded her---she’d managed to land on her good side instead of her back. Landing on her side was good for her head, but the smacking of her injured arm to the ground made pain seize through her body so fiercely her muscles trembled. The fall hadn’t done much for her busted ankle, either.

At least the mud had cushioned her a little, but as a result she was already positively filthy, and moving through the sludge was going to be damned difficult.

Peachy.

“Go on, Romanoff, get up. Can you escape the maze before time runs out?” Sitwell taunted.

_Oh, perfect, a game of revenge, _she thought, shoving to her feet. Didn’t anybody just kill each other anymore?__

__“Clock’s ticking, Romanoff!” Sitwell yelled. Nat ignored him. Moving quickly, she took off her booted ankle brace. It would make healing a pain in the ass in the long run, but she had a feeling she would need to be able to move, and it was already stuck in the mud anyway._ _

__Her gunshot wound was still bleeding, so she yanked her jacket off and ripped the hem of her shirt, hoping it would be enough while she tied the shirt around her arm in a pathetic makeshift bandage. Maybe it would keep a little of the mud and filth out._ _

__Then she took a few tentative steps forward. Nothing leapt out or flew at her. That was good, that was great. She could handle this. Natasha limped down the tunnel, willing her eyes to adjust quickly. Running into things in the dark was not on her to do list._ _

__Unease skittered through her, but she clamped it down. There would be a way out—Sitwell would want her to have hope of escaping. She just had to find whatever he’d stashed in the maze for her, and then use it to actually escape and kick his ass._ _

__Turning slowly into the first corner, she peered into the darkness. From the glance she’d been given earlier, there were dozens of twists and turns in this place. One of them had to lead to the way out. That was fine, that was easy. Nothing she hadn’t been through before, it was like the time she and Clint ran through a creepy garden maze once in Jersey._ _

__A pang went through her at that; having Clint in this maze with her would have made things less tense, more like old times. She could practically hear his snorts of indignation about being tossed in the mud. Eyeing the walls, Nat had a brief moment of regret for not climbing as often as Clint did. Maybe if she’d followed him in the many vents he liked to crawl in, she’d be able to scramble up and out. But the walls surrounding her were slick and covered with a substance she didn’t want to look to closely at._ _

__So she continued on._ _

__Jutting her chin out, she slipped through the shadows, turning this way and that in the maze. Stepping softly, she tried not to sink too much more into the mud. Already it covered her face, her arms, tangled in her hair. The gunshot hurt but the mud caking on her face itched, which was somehow worse._ _

__Somewhere there was an exit. She just had to keep going._ _

__Another corner, and—-hmmm. This part of the tunnels had crevices in the walls, small holes and an occasional rock shoved out enough that it could be used to place a foot or hand on. Nat tilted her head it, calculating. The wound on her arm and her ankle would make it a bitch, but...could she climb it?_ _

__As she stepped closer dull-colored, filthy rocks appeared to litter the ground underneath the best path up she could identify. The tunnel walls were darker here, almost as if they were..._ _

__Natasha eyed the rocks. It clicked in seconds, her iron-clad stomach doing a long, disgusted roll._ _

__Not rocks. Bones. She was staring at the bones of anyone else desperate enough to use those crevices as a way out. As if someone had ripped them apart. And...she stepped closer to the walls. Not just mud, not here. The dark smudges were different, smelled funny, like someone had held a torch to the rock._ _

__Natasha froze. Scorch marks. The walls here were covered in scorch marks. As if someone---or _something_ \--- had exploded._ _

___Shit_._ _

__Reassessing her ability to climb like a monkey, Natasha tentatively reached a hand out, ignoring the bones of the people who’d been ripped apart. If this was where the Red Hulk liked to play, she needed to get the hell out._ _

__Arm screaming with pain, and fingernails dripping with blood and stinging so badly she hissed, she managed to grab on a ledge and and inch up a little. But putting her full weight on her ankle backfired. Once again, Natasha tumbled down, cursing up a storm when she toppled into the slime._ _

__A small growl echoed through the tunnels. Natasha flinched, heart beat picking up rapidly, while she strained to see in the dark. Oh, fuck. Ohfuck, ohfuck, ohfuck._ _

__“Looks like you didn’t get out in time,” Sitwell laughed, his voice bouncing off speakers hidden somewhere. If the Red Hulk didn't incinerate her, she was going to annihilate him. “Too bad. Your new friend is waking up from the tranqs we have him on. He does so love chasing people in his tunnels. It’s the only way we can keep him there.”_ _

__Another growl, louder and closer. Jesus. How many of his own men had Sitwell sacrificed down here? Terror clawed through her—-she had to move, she had to run, but where? There was nowhere to go, and she could never outrun him._ _

__Natasha sank into the shadows, and fought to ignore her fear, forced herself to stay still and not tremble. She didn’t need to worry about the patients in the hospital, anymore, at least. They were safe now. At least there was that._ _

__But it didn’t bring her much comfort as she saw the enormous, bulky figure of the Red Hulk step in front of the entrance of the tunnel she was cornered in._ _


	10. Chapter 10

Smashing her way out was impossible. She’d managed to survive fighting the Red Hulk in the woods, but in such a narrow space with her wounds, the odds weren’t high in her favor of succeeding at it again.

And there would be no outmaneuvering. Not with a Hulk. They were too indestructible, and if she wasn’t careful, she’d be incinerated, and not even her bones would linger as a warning to the next victim Sitwell shoved down here. She was more out of her depth and vulnerable than she’d been in years, sitting there, waiting to see if the massive creature would wander by or charge straight for her.

Sliding further into the darkness, she reached a hand out and snatched a rock. Out of depth she might be, but dammit, she was the Black Widow. She had a reputation to uphold.

And if Sitwell wanted a show, she would damn well give him one.

Flicking the rock up and to the right, she waited. It took a few seconds, thanks to the heft she put behind the toss. But soon enough a smacking noise sounded; the rock had gone up and clattered to the ground at the top of the trench.

Seconds later gunfire rained down, from where the rock must have looked like it was tossed up from. Sitwell’s men were still monitoring the tunnels from above, then.

Good.

As she’d intended, it drew the Red Hulk’s attention. Keeping her back pressed firmly against the wall, grabbing another rock, Natasha somehow stayed still during the Hulk’s ferocious bellow. Boy, he had quite the lung capacity. Ears ringing, the viciousness in the roar making her skin crawl, she remained motionless. The Red Hulk flew down her tunnel, snarling and growling, drool dropping down his enormous red chin, so much of it that it was visible in the dim light.

Natasha pressed firmly against the filth and mud, praying this Hulk had the same weakness Bruce did when it came to seeing in the dark. If she moved too obviously, if she breathed too deep, he would be on her in moments. But if she stayed as she was, one with the shadows as she had been her whole life, she had a chance.

_Come a little closer, said the spider to the fly,_ Natasha thought. And silently flung the next rock.

Again it clattered somewhere above—-on the other side of the tunnel this time, from the sounds of it. Shouts erupted up above, and again, Sitwell’s men panicked and fired down into the tunnels.

This time, they aimed directly at the Red Hulk.

Bullets tore into him, not breaking flesh, but definitely causing annoyance if the way he screamed at them was any indication. While he banged his fists in rage, Natasha used the distraction to flee.

“Stop shouting at us, you idiot!” Someone shouted. “Go after her! Look! She’s getting away, you moron!”

Shit.

The footsteps stomping behind her made the very ground tremble, had her stumbling despite her attempts to stay upright, despite her ignoring her screaming ankle. Shoving it down, Nat _flew_ , scrambling through the mud, hauling ass faster than she’d ever done, making her way to the place she’d been tossed in, the place that might give her a chance...

An old memory, one she’d shoved away long ago, erupted through her mind: another chase, another tunnel, another Hulk. The same panic, the same fear, the same goddamn heart-stopping horror in the knowledge she couldn’t outrun this, she couldn’t get away——

_“Nyet,”_ she hissed at herself. Like hell she’d die this way. She’d gotten a Hulk on her side before. It was time to do so again.

Stopping so quickly she nearly toppled over, Natasha held her back firm and straight and whirled to meet the monster chasing her through the dark.

“Wait.” The word was firm, her order clear. Despite the hatred in his eyes, the Red Hulk came to a complete stop, barely a foot from smashing her.

Now was not the time to gulp or flinch, but remain one hundred percent the ice queen she was known for. So she pushed back the instinctive urge to run like hell, and gave the Red Hulk her most firm, deadly look.

“Aren’t you interested in taking on your keepers?”

A giant, enormous face leered down to peer into hers. _One hit,_ a terrified part of her shrieked. One hit and that was it. That would be the end of Natasha Romanoff. She could do nothing to fend off a hit from a Hulk.

Except offer him better prey.

“Those men,” she said calmly, her voice not showing an inkling of the nerves she felt, “they promised you something. But they never delivered, did they? Instead they drugged you up, or stuck you down here, to play in the mud because you’re the mistake they don’t want to deal with.”

His breath puffed out in hot snorts against her face. Oh, God. This could end so badly. Steeling herself, Natasha looked him dead in the eye. “Don’t you think it’s about time you do something about that?”

His breath snuffed out into hers again, but this time, it wasn’t a threat. There was no intimidation in his black eyes, no deadly intent to kill.

Instead, she saw the cool, calculating look of a predator considering the odds.

Taking that bet a step further, she said, “I bet you could leap out of these tunnels rather easily.”

He grunted. Rearing back, his arms lashed out, and—oh, shit, hell, _ow_ —-he snatched her around the middle. Holding her ground, praying she hadn’t read the terrain wrong, she leaned into his face the best she could with her arms in a vise. “I can help you.”

He hurtled them both up and out of the tunnels before she could say more. Grabbing onto the enormous hand holding her, Natasha lifted her face, prepared to meet the men who’d tossed her into the dark and the muck. The men who’d thought they could outwit her, who thought they could throw her out of her comfort zone and have her fail.

But she was the Black Widow. They really should have known better.

The Red Hulk’s enormous feet slammed into the ground a few feet away from Sitwell. Natasha was rather pleased to see it looked like he was about to piss himself.

“Did you really think I couldn’t get out of there?” Natasha called down on him. She was taking a hell of a risk—-the Red Hulk could crush her like a grape any second. And yet. Sitwell needed to know, one very, very vital fact before he died.

No one messed with the Black Widow’s family.

“Red Hulk,” she said, tilting her head. Her casual tone covered the pounding heartbeat roaring in her chest. Sitwell scrambled back, shouting, the men around him running out of the way as well.

“Smash.”

She wasn’t dropped so much as tossed to the ground. Luckily, she’d seen it coming and managed not to land on her bad ankle, rolling until she lay on her back and then staggered her way to her feet. As she pushed her hair out of her face, the screaming started.

The Red Hulk smashed.

Even she had a hard time watching.

But she stood tall while the Red Hulk chased down agents who would never be a match in a fight for him, as he enacted his revenge for being used. Strangled shouts and pleas filled the air, brutally cut off before anyone could assist. She could have gone to them. Could have tried to convince the Red Hulk to stand down.

She didn’t. This was a decision she wasn’t coming back from, and a small part of her prayed Rogers never found out about it. He’d never understand the choice she just made, the lengths she would go to to protect her family.

But Tony would.

When the Red Hulk finished with Sitwell, he whirled on Natasha. Focusing on the blood and other horrific things covering his fists was not smart, so again she looked him dead in the eye.

“Truce over?” She asked. If it was, and it was damn sure looking like it, she’d at least gotten rid of enough Hydra agents that Tony and Peter stood a chance of escaping.

The Red Hulk snorted at her and turned away.

She didn’t even hide the sway when her knees went a little weak. Oh, thank God.

When a hand landed on her shoulder, she whirled, preparing to destroy, but before her punch could land her fist met a warm palm, and the punch was stopped by an exhausted-looking teenager with a mop of brown hair.

“Hey, Agent Romanoff,” Peter Parker said.

“ _Parker_.” The relief flooded through her so quickly she got nauseous. “Are you all right, what happened, don’t you EVER—-“

He winced. “Yeah, I got all that already from Mr. Stark. Hang on, okay? We need to get up to where he’s sitting.”

With that, he wrapped an arm around her waist and Natasha felt herself being catapulted into the air once again. Honestly. She was going to keep her feet firmly planted on the ground for months after this.

Peter jumped them into rafters, where Tony lay sprawled on his stomach with a tranq gun. As they landed, he fired a dart down below, where the Red Hulk still rampaged.

“That ought to take him out in a bit,” Tony said, sitting up. “Thanks for getting Romanoff out of the way, kid.”

“Of course, Mr. Stark! Want me to go back down and see what else I can—-“

“Ah, no. Ixnay on the you doing anything else, Mr. ‘Leave-for-a-trip-without-telling-anyone.’ The adults are working. We’ll get back to you and the fifty thousand ways you screwed the pooch when we get out of here.”

“Tony,” Natasha said when Peter’s head drooped.

Tony snorted. “Like you aren’t gonna lecture him.”

“Time and place,” she murmured, resisting the urge to ruffle Parker’s hair. The kid looked like Tony kicked his puppy.

Tony sighed. “Yeah, all right. Sorry, kid. Keep an eye on the Red Hulk for me, will ya? Make sure he isn’t about to go boom and blow us all up. Romanoff, let me see your injuries. You look atrocious.”

“Thanks,” she said dryly, but scooted over to let him look at her gun shot wound. “So, I take it you weren’t working on a way to make more super Hulks?”

Tony snorted. “Of course not. When will they learn? I made up a tranq to knock the big guy out, and a few bombs to get us out. After that I took out my guards, found Parker, killed his guards and made my way here. To see you with the Red Hulk, do you have any idea how many years you scared off my life to see you go face to face with him?”

“Imagine being the one he glared at.”

Tony shuddered. “No, thank you. Jesus. This turned into the worlds most fucked-up mission, Romanoff.”

Natasha’s eyes went to Peter, and to the Red Hulk falling to his knees below him, finally feeling the effect of the tranq. “Turned out okay, though,” she said softly.

Tony followed her gaze, and smiled at Parker. “Yeah. Guess it did.”

 

 

 

Three days later, she was about to lose her mind.

“—-tried bribing them, and about four of them are interested, I can tell. Gimme about three more weeks and I’ll have the rest eating out of our palms, Nat, it’ll be a done deal. So you can just call and tell King Kitten that you’re staying here, and I’ll let Pep know to cancel the jet. Besides, the kid—-”

“Tony.”

“—-wants to train with you again, never mind that you can’t do shit with your ankle, he thinks if he had mastered your strangle-a-guy-with-your-thighs-move, Hydra never would have caught him. Which probably _is_ true, despite the fact that he never should have—-“

“Tony.”

“—gone off on his own, I’m not letting go of _that_ for—-“

“TONY.”

He stopped, hunching his shoulders and glancing away. The fire in front of them crackled and snapped, and Tony took a step toward it, holding out his hands as if he were actually trying to warm up. It would have been more convincing if she couldn’t see the sweat beading on his forehead.

The ski lodge was full of people; after FRIDAY finally got the Avengers to Natasha and Tony, they had refused to leave. Pepper and Rhodey were making something delicious in the kitchen (though from experience she prayed Rhodes was the one actually cooking. Pepper Potts could do literally anything but cook.) Vision and Maria Hill prowled the perimeter, the android delighting the Assistant Shield Director with his commentary. Happy, May, and the kid were on the slopes, FRIDAY monitoring them closely, letting Parker get to have a little of the vacation he’d been robbed of.

Natasha sat with her foot propped on the coffee table, a new boot on her ankle. A steaming cup of hot chocolate sat next to it. Tony hadn’t left her side since she announced she had to return to Wakanda the next day.

“I’m putting you all in jeopardy staying here,” she said quietly. “I can’t stay.”

“Fuck the Accords.”

It made her laugh. “Tony.”

“Seriously, we can work around it. You should stay, Romanoff. We need you. Think of the mess I’d have been in without you last week.”

“I think you would have been just fine.”

“Well yeah, it’s _me_ , but still. You’re handy to have around.”

“Your flattery knows no bounds, Stark.”

“I don’t want you to go.” He turned as he said it, looking her in the eyes again. “I know you’ve got a great set up with King Kitten, and Rogers and Wilson come and go, but, hell, Nat. We miss you when you’re gone. You’re part of the team.”

How did he always know what to say, how to slice her to the core? “Am I?”

“You think being sent off to Wakanda changes that? We’ve been over this before, Romanoff. You’re family. I couldn’t have gotten through this week without you.”

“You just said you’d have been fine.”

“I didn’t want to go alone.”

“What?” The admission caught her off guard, made her blink. “What do you mean?”

He sighed, walking to the couch and dropping down next to her. “When we thought the Hulk we were after was Bruce. I didn’t want to go after him alone. I don’t think I could have.”

“It didn’t matter in the end, did it?” She hated that it sounded bitter. “It wasn’t Bruce. We still don’t know where he is.”

Shifting, Tony scooted closer, wrapped an arm around her. “I’m sorry for that. I could try harder, pull more security feeds, or send out more feelers....”

Natasha shook her head. “No. If he doesn’t want to be found, we should respect that. Even if we wished we didn’t have to.”

He sighed. “Is that your subtle way of telling me to respect your wishes to go back to Wakanda?”

“I need to do the right thing, Tony. And I probably need to think about how I purposely let a Hulk loose on a bunch of people.”

“They had it coming,” he growled.

“Yes.” She wouldn’t argue that, not when it was the truth. She’d seen the experiments and terror Sitwell and his men had caused when they cleared out the base. Robert Maverick, the man who turned out to be the Red Hulk, was not the only one Hydra had experimented on.

And not all of them had been volunteers.

She sighed, continuing. “But I chose to add a hell of a lot of red in my ledger, Tony. I probably need to stay benched for a while.”

Tony shifted, turning to grip her gently by the shoulders. “If you think I’m going to judge you about moral codes, you’ve got another thing coming, Romanoff. I may not be the Merchant of Death anymore, but Sitwell signed his death warrant the instant he went after Peter. I would have ripped him apart with my own hands if the Red Hulk hadn’t beaten me to it. If you’re on the Highway to Hell, so am I.”

She didn’t know what to say to that. He would have, she knew he would have. And part of her was incredibly grateful that he hadn’t been the one to do it.

He already had enough to deal with, thanks to the mess they’d caused with the Accords.

“If the public finds out what I did,” she began, but Tony cut her off.

“They’ll what? Be impressed by your ability to escape a terrible situation without getting smashed? Let it go, Tasha. You’re not a monster for protecting your family. God only knows what would have happened if Hydra found out about Peter’s abilities. You stopped that from happening.”

_Cut off one head, and two more takes its place,_ she thought, but kept it to herself. Tony was right. Peter was safe for now, and that was all that mattered.

“And for the record, I think emotionally manipulating a Hulk and getting him to do your bidding is cool as hell,” he continued.

It had her laughing again. “We’re quite the pair, aren’t we?” She moved again, wiggling until she could easily drop her head on his shoulder. The world righted itself a little as she did so. Tony was absolutely right. Of all people, he wouldn’t judge her, or shy away from the things she could do, the decisions she could make.

He’d just be there for her afterward, with hot chocolate full of pain killers because he knew she wouldn't take them, and eyes full of understanding. Was probably the only person in the world who truly could understand.

“Hey, we’re the Piping Hot Mess Express. Our issues have issues. At least we’ve got each other.”

That they did. And she was so grateful.

“I didn’t want to be alone, either.” She admitted. “When I thought it was Bruce. I’m glad you were there.”

He reached out, grabbed her hand. Squeezed. “Me too, Nat.”

 

 

 

 

Romanoff fell asleep during story time.

He would have been insulted (his stories were fucking _great_ , thank you very much), but the pain killers he’d put in her hot chocolate finally kicked in. She would kick his ass for that one, later, (he’d told her the truth, she knew it was laced, he wasn’t _that_ kind of a jackass. But he might have put a little more than what he’d said in there to get her to fucking _Go To Sleep_ \---it had been three days, Romanoff, Jesus, she slept worse than he did), but as she still had a gun shot wound and a fractured ankle, Tony was betting he could get away with it.

Hopefully. He was 99% sure. If he was wrong he’d end up with a crutch shoved up his ass. So he was going to have to make sure that 1% undoubtedly went in his favor.

The kid sprawled on the floor in front of her like a puppy. Tony knew he hadn’t been the only one terrified when they busted into the tunnels and saw Romanoff face to face with a Hulk able to crush her in seconds. Parker had squeaked and about toppled over. But it was good, it was fine. No need to dwell on how fucking terrifying that whole ordeal had been. The rest of the Avengers showed up to kick ass, Tony found a way to subdue the Red Hulk permanently, and another Hydra cell was obliterated. They’d saved the day, _yay!_ , and now everyone was enjoying a little rest time at the ski lodge.

And when the kid had gotten back from skiing, his face had been bright and happy and Tony thanked God and Thor and any other deities listening that things had ended the way they had.

He had Romanoff to thank for that.

So Tony wrapped up his story of how he originally met Gary, though the woman who’d asked about him was snoring softly on the couch. Parker at least thought it entertaining, even if it made Pepper sigh and rub the back of her neck at his audacity to commandeer a news van.

But, really. It certainly wasn’t the worst thing he’d ever done.

As everyone stood and prepared to head to sleep for the night, Tony made a mental note to send Gary a thank you note. And maybe a gift. He should get him customized Tony Stark Care Bear, Gary would eat that shit up. Maybe there’d be a way he could have them sew on a little mustache....

“Bed,” Pepper said firmly, wrapping her arms around him.

“Mmhmm,” Tony said as she kissed him, a light kiss that he instantly took deeper, because it was Pepper, it was always Pepper, and he would never take that for granted again. The blush that rippled across her skin when they parted had him beaming and adjusting his pants a little. Pepper was the best.

“Tony.” She swatted at him when he leaned back in, so he behaved himself and kissed her cheek.

“Be right up. Gotta finish something up first.”

“See that you do,” she teased, walking away, and yeah, yup, that would do it. Tony would not be wasting any time.

But first he paused, and picked up the blanket on the back of the couch. Romanoff had been concerned, earlier. Tony knew all about her desire to wipe out the red in her ledger. Personally he thought taking out Hydra and smashing the hell out of Shitwell was a hell of a step in the right direction, but she’d had a point about others finding out. The Black Widow was already on a shaky line with public opinion due to the Accords and just who she was in general. They didn’t know the woman who liked pizza at three am, and hated classical music, and had a soft spot for training teenagers that asked a million questions a minute.

They just knew her as the most deadly woman in the world.

So he draped the blanket over the world’s most fearsome assassin, and then grabbed hist tablet to work with FRIDAY and make sure any footage of what happened in those tunnels never saw the light of day.

Romanoff wasn’t the only one who looked out for family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special shout out to bitofageek for the Care Bear idea for Gary <3 Hopefully I worked it in okay!
> 
> The Red Hulk is generally Thaddeus Ross, but I've had him as the bad guy in a few stories already so went a different route. Robert Maverick also is a version of the Red Hulk, so I shamelessly used his name and altered his background for my own benefit. I also took a few liberties of the Hulk having a hard time seeing in the dark, sorry if that offends anyone!
> 
> And look at that, I managed to make the title fit! 
> 
> Thank you for all who kudos'd this along the way, and especially those who commented! You made writing this so fun! Thank you for reading!


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